The present invention relates to an apparatus useful in analyzing the separated components in a cylindrical column of acrylamide gel which has been used in an electrophoresis separation process for separating components in a complex biological mixture.
Electrophoresis is the movement of charged particles in a solution or solid support medium under the influence of an electrical field. Preparative or analytical electrophoresis is carried out in a cylindrical column of a polyacrylamide gel. The solution containing the components to be analyzed or separated is applied to the top of a polymerized acrylamide gel column and a potention of measured voltage applied across the column while maintaining a continuous flow of buffer through the elution chamber. When electrophoresis is complete, the cylindrical gel containing the separated components is removed from the column and the components identified as to their position in the column and eluted from that part of the column for further purification and/or identification.
Several methods have been used to locate the position of the desired fraction on the polyacrylamide column.
In one such method, the entire polyacrylamide column with adsorbed fractions is tightly enclosed in a cylindrical gel holder and a brass jig containing three tightly stretched wires are drawn through the column to produce four longitudinal slices. One of the drawbacks of this apparatus is that it is difficult to fabricate so that the slices will be prepared without distorting the shape of the slice. This apparatus requires extreme care in processing slices after preparation and is rather expensive to manufacture, requiring very close tolerances and also making it difficult for the operator to cut slices without distorting the column.
Other methods involve the preparation of specially fitted jigs to hold the cylindrical acrylamide gel column in position and carefully positioned blades to cut longitudinal slices from the column. All except the crudest of these prior art devices were expensive and or difficult to manufacture, or were difficult to operate without distorting the shape of the cylindrical gel column.